Marketing Case Interview

As candidates begin their preparation for management consulting interviews, they are often familiar with the frameworks and approaches to solve profitability, M&A, growth, and market-entry case interviews. However, many candidates will struggle to apply these traditional frameworks to cases concerning product launches or marketing campaigns. The reason? It is often because these more untraditional cases are deliberate attempts to weed out candidates who are only used to confronting the four most common case types. In this article, we will guide you through one of the most overlooked scenarios—the Marketing Case Interview. Let's dive right in!

What Is a Marketing Case Interview?

The case interview has proven to be an essential component of the consulting recruitment process. The case—which serves as a business simulation of a real-world client scenario—is an opportunity for a candidate to demonstrate a creative approach to an industry-specific challenge. The Marketing Case Study Interview—like others—presents an opportunity for a candidate to demonstrate their well-rounded knowledge and framing of the launch, sale, design, or growth of a product. These cases often involve leveraging marketing data to develop solutions for client challenges which can include but is not limited to: marketing campaigns, evaluating consumer preferences, targeting new customer segments, and branding.

Examples of this might include questions like:

• "X's recent digital marketing campaign for sustainable clothing did not attract the customer footfall expected. How would you analyze the campaign's performance to identify the root cause for its underperformance?"
• "A local clothing retailer that is positioned in affordable retail is looking to transition to higher-end catalogs and branding. They have tasked you with developing a repositioning strategy to attract high-end market segments."

Because top consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain use these case types extensively, familiarizing yourself with marketing case interviews will set your candidacy up for success and can pave the road to a competitive management consulting offer!

What's The Overall Process?

The case interview process is largely the same from firm to firm, yet there are some variances. You can learn more about the case interview prep process here.

Understanding The Case Scenario

The process will begin with the interview simulating the client case and client background. As your interview briefs you on the challenge, make sure you are avidly taking notes and that you can relay an overview of the client, industry, problem, and ask. This will be critical to ensure you are framing the rest of the interview around the root problem.

Information Gathering / Points Of Clarification

After you relay your understanding of the client and the case, you may have an opportunity to ask clarifying questions that you feel would be helpful in developing your framework and recommendations further into the case. This would be an opportunity to ask questions around: social media presence, existing campaigns, consumer preferences and industry trends, marketing management within the company, and any quantitative targets that the client may have.

Framework Development

Once the case has been introduced and you have received the clarity you need regarding the client and the problem, you will need to develop a marketing framework that identifies the key issues and considerations that need to be identified and analyzed to formulate the most impactful recommendations.

Data Analysis And Insights

Depending on whether this is a candidate-led or interviewer-led marketing case interview, you will be asked to examine data exhibits that disclose client or industry data trends over the years. Make sure to familiarize yourself with different data charts and what they are meant to display (e.g. Marimekko charts, Bubble charts and Harvey balls, stacked columns, etc.).

Quantitative And Qualitative Problem-Solving

The remainder of the case interview will assess both your quantitative and qualitative competencies. Using the data from earlier on in the case, hypotheticals (e.g. market sizing), or entirely new data sets, you will be expected to calculate different quantitative outcomes like YOY sales growth, break-even calculations on a marketing investment, ROI, or more complex calculations. Quantitatively, this involves brainstorming or creativity questions that test your ability to be quick on your feet, unique, all while formulating a structured and organized solution.

Recommendations Development And Presentation

Finally, after moving through these different components of your marketing case interview, you will develop recommendations that leverage your framework, calculations, creative ideas, risks and mitigations, and relevant next steps.

How to Solve A Marketing Case Interview

Marketing Case Interview Examples

It's super helpful for candidates to watch others go through a case interview. These case interview examples give a breadth of experience and learning that you can use in your own case interview. See case interview examples here.

Marketing Case Interview Frameworks

Here are some marketing case interview frameworks that will help you understand how to solve a marketing case interview!

Keep in mind that frameworks like these are helpful to have memorized, not because you’ll use them verbatim in an interview, but because they will inform the custom frameworks you’ll build to answer the specific problem you’re tasked with solving.

4P's Framework

Marketing Mix (4P's)

Product Questions

• • What is the product and how is it different from what else is on the market?
  • How innovative is this product compared to others that exist in the market?
  • Is the product patented or have any rights that can protect it from being copied?
  • Are there similar products in the market that can act as substitutes?
  • Will the product cannibalize any of the client’s current products?

Price Questions

• • What is our current pricing strategy?
  • What is our breakeven point?
  • Has there been any research completed to see how much customers are willing to pay for the product or similar ones?
  • Do customers need to be educated about the product?

Promotion Questions

• • What marketing strategies have been implemented so far?
  • Which have been successful, and which have not?
  • What are the ways competitors have been marketing their products?
  • How much is spent on marketing?

Place Questions

• • Which distribution channels are used to distribute the products?
  • Which channels best reach our customers?
  • Is a salesforce needed to reach our customers?
  • What channels have been most successful for our client in the past?
  • How about competitors?

3C's & Situation Analysis Framework H5

Company Category Questions

• • What defines the company?
  • What are the company’s core competencies?
  • How long has the company been around?
  • What does the company’s financial performance look like over the past few years?
  • What is the company’s management team like?
  • How strong is our company’s brand?
  • What are our client’s competitive advantages and weaknesses?

Customers Category Questions

• • Who is the customer?
  • What are the customer demographics?
  • How are customers segmented, and what kind of growth have these segments seen over the past few years?
  • How are they projected to grow?
  • How sensitive are customers to prices?
  • What are the distribution channels through which the client reaches its customers?

Competition Category Questions

• • Who are the competitors in the market and what is their market share?
  • How quickly is each competitor growing?
  • Do our competitors offer products or services that our client does not?
  • How is the competition marketing their products?
  • How is the competition pricing their products?

Product Category Questions

• • What products does the client offer and what is the client’s product mix?
  • How innovative is this product compared to others that exist in the market?
  • Is the product patented or does it have rights that can protect it from being copied?
  • Are there similar products in the market that can act as substitutes?
  • Can the product be bundled with any existing products?
  • How big is the market for this product?

Marketing Case Interview Prep

As you prepare for the marketing case interview, you should plan to ensure you have enough time to learn the foundational information and to practice with live case partners. Candidates should:

1. Take time to understand marketing frameworks like the 4P's and familiarize themselves with a product's lifecycle.
2. Understand how to structure financial calculations like market sizing (TAM/SAM/SOM), ROI, and breakeven analysis.
3. Familiarize themselves with industry cost and revenue streams in addition to the financials of marketing investments.
4. Review real market cases from real consulting firms.
5. Practice marketing case interviews with a partner and home in on your weaknesses within the case interview process (structure / framework, quantitative, qualitative, exhibit analysis, recommendations, and communication).

Concluding Thoughts

While the marketing case interview may not be the most common case-type you will confront throughout your consulting recruitment journey, equipping yourself with the industry knowledge, frameworks, and processes necessary to successfully complete a marketing case will prepare you for the uncertainty that comes with consulting interviews.

And at some firms, like Simon-Kucher and ZS Associates, marketing cases play a larger role in the screening process than in the industry overall.

Finally, don’t forget that CPG companies employ cases extensively when hiring for their marketing functions – even if you’re not targeting management consulting, you may need to know how to solve a marketing case interview!

No matter what kind of role or firm you’re targeting, having extensive practice with these cases will help supplement your preparation for other case types and will help you offer creative and impactful marketing strategies in and outside of your upcoming interviews.

 

Additional Resources:

• Case Interview Frameworks: Ultimate Guide
• Consulting Resume: Complete Guide
• Case Interview: Complete Prep Guide (2024)